What Can Blockchain Technology Do For The Web?

The advent of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Etherium, and Litecoin, brought blockchain technology to the attention of the mainstream tech audience. But it hasn’t been until the last year or so, which showed significant to staggering gains in crypto-coin value, that blockchains have become this year’s dominant buzzword. For those of you who still need to catch up, here’s an excellent guide to Bitcoin and blockchain technology, explained in simple terms.

As David Lubbat puts it in his interview, “the most exciting ideas are the ones that successfully inspire creativity and innovation.” Blockchain technology has definitely inspired some innovation in the hack-a-thon circuit. For instance, web developers have recently mastered embedding cryptocurrency tools into PHP, enabling a virtual “tip jar” where visitors can tip a few Satoshi. Every bit helps!

Javascript is also a robust partner with blockchains. There’s an informal contest out there to write a minimal blockchain implementation in the shortest Javascript code snippet; one post at Medium claims just 200 lines! There’s also been more than a few websites trying to use web visitors as crypto-miners. 4Chan was among them. The jury’s still out on whether that practice is ethical, however, fairly notifying your visitors that you’re gaining revenue this way instead of ads should be acceptable.

David Lubbat‘s areas of interest are synergistic with all the areas impacted by blockchains on the web. After all, decentralized P2P networks have been around before; it’s how we got the classic Napster. Blockchains are just a handy method of building a trusted network out of non-trusted peers. The fact that Bitcoin, the premier cryptocurrency, has withstood years of networking to become solid enough that people invest their life fortunes in it, is a great proof of its validity.

Potential implications for blockchain methods include lots of “Internet of Things” gadgets – IoT is permeating all layers of the industry with a range of highly specialized “smart devices” to assist in tasks as diverse as weather forecasting and livestock herding. Security has always been a heavy concern with IoT gadgets – small, specialized devices involving things like RFID tags and Bluetooth connection are open targets for penetration. But now imagine a block chained fleet of these devices, cooperating in a true hive-mind! It doesn’t matter if one of them gets compromised; the other devices will simply correct it.

One thing is clear: Blockchains and the web work very well together. Even without specializing in blockchain-related technologies, the possibilities open up many new vistas in the web development world.